Three inmates were put to death Thursday \u2014 marking the first triple execution in the United States in 16 years.<\/p>\n
Murderers on death row in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama were executed within hours of each other through lethal injection, USA Today<\/a> reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Typically, there is only one execution scheduled per day in the US, sometimes maybe two \u2014 but three is \u201cvery unusual,\u201d Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robin Maher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three death row inmates were executed on Thursday in the first triple-execution in the US since 2010. AP Photo\/Sue Ogrocki<\/p>\n Death penalty observers say that double or triple executions are purely coincidental timing.<\/p>\n The first two executions took place early Thursday morning, exactly 30 minutes apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 77, was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. CT in Oklahoma after being sentenced to death for the 2003 murder of his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher, 43.\u00a0<\/p>\n In front of the Oklahoma Board of Parole and Pardon last month, Cuesta-Rodriguez said the last thing he deserved was mercy despite his attorneys arguing that he be spared from execution.<\/p>\n Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 77, was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. CT in Oklahoma. Oklahoma State Department of Corrections\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cYou must believe that I deserve to suffer,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you\u2019re right,\u201d he said, addressing Fisher\u2019s two daughters. \u201cIt\u2019s time for me to pay for what I did,\u201d Cuesta-Rodriguez added while addressing Fisher\u2019s two daughters.<\/p>\n Shortly after, Tennessee put Anthony Hines, 66, to death for the 1985 murder of mother of four, Catherine Jean Jenkins, 54.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was pronounced dead at 10:34 a.m. CT.<\/p>\n Anthony Hines, 66, was pronounced dead at 10:34 a.m. CT in Tennessee. Tennessee Department of Correction via AP<\/p>\n Hines fatally stabbed Jenkins while she was cleaning a motel room where she worked as a maid, pocketed $100 cash from her and took off in his car.\u00a0<\/p>\n He admitted to stealing Jenkins\u2019 car, but maintained all along that he did not kill her.\u00a0<\/p>\n Later Thursday, Alabama executed Jeremy Williams, 42, for the murder and rape of a 5-year-old girl in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Williams was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n In December 2021, Williams had taken Kamarie Holland, 5, from her home in Columbus City, Georgia, after he agreed to pay Holland\u2019s own mother to sexually abuse her, USA Today reported, citing police.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeremy Williams, 42, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CT in Alabama. Russell County Jail<\/p>\n Police believe that the girl\u2019s mother, Kristy Siple, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to human sex trafficking of her daughter, wanted the money to buy drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Williams made Holland smoke meth before raping and strangling her and continued to sexually abuse the little girl after she died.<\/p>\n The inmate requested his attorneys not provide a defense for him at his 2024 trial and ordered his legal team to not appeal the death sentence handed down by the judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two inmates were executed in Florida on the same day last month. Florida Department of Corrections via AP<\/p>\n Unlike most inmates on death row who are often executed decades after their crimes were committed due to drawn-out appeals, Williams was killed just five years after his heinous acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The last time the US saw a triple-execution was 16 years ago when Ohio, Texas and Louisiana each executed inmates on Jan. 7, 2010.<\/p>\n